Texas says supplement designed to deceive

AUSTIN, Texas, May 7 (UPI) -- A dietary supplement sold in Texas is deliberately packaged to look like an antibiotic sold over the counter in Mexico, the state attorney general says.

Greg Abbott said his office has requested a restraining order against Multimex Distributions Inc. of Georgia and San Martin Distributions Inc. of Houston, the Austin American-Statesman reported Friday. The companies distribute Amoxilina, a dietary supplement with a name close to the Mexican name of the antibiotic amoxicillin.

In court papers, the attorney general's office charged Amoxilina is being marketed in a deliberately deceptive way to families who may not be aware amoxicillin requires a doctor's prescription in the United States.

Dr. Pat Crocker, chief of emergency medicine at Dell Children's Medical Center, said Amoxilina probably will not hurt anyone who takes it but it also will not kill any bacteria. Four children were recently hospitalized at Dell with infections the parents had tried to treat with Amoxilina.

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